Finding Your Way
by Pontiger27
Summary: Pokemon are part of everyone's life whether they help you in battles, contests, or just general problems. Some people study them, some train with them, some just have them as company but what everyone has in common is that their life is affected by it. Corrine is just now going out on a journey to figure out this connection by traveling through the Highland Region.
1. Getting To Know The Highland Region

**Hey everyone I know that I've been off the face of the earth for an extremely long time but I have finally found some inspiration to get back into the saddle! So I hope you all will help me make this story wonderful!**

The Region of Highland is located in the northwest part of the world above Sinnoh, Kanto, Jhoto, and Hoenn. Having a variety of climates Highland is home to many different types of pokemon that can be found in neighboring regions. From the the big cities, mountain terrains, coastal training hot spots Highland is the next step in a trainer's journey after they have conquered the other regions. It features a vast network of rivers and waterways snaking through the plains and mountain range that grows more frigid the higher you go.


	2. Fight for the Future!

**Sorry this chapter took so long to update! I just wanted to make sure that I thought everything through instead of just puking out a chapter so without further notice her is the first chapter!**

* * *

Today the weather was clear, the sun shinning brightly as if it knew today was an exciting day for some of the people of Pax Valley. For today is the day that so many have spent sleepless nights dreaming about. The day they get their first Pokemon! The town's youth were buzzing with excitement of the prospect of what Pokemon they would get to start their journey with so the weather definitely reflected their mood. Except for one girl in particular who instead of rushing excitedly to Professor Cedar's lab like the rest of her peers. Instead she sat hugging her knees on the hill across from the laboratory watching each individual run out excitedly with their new Pokemon either in their arms or in its pokeball. Then run off in the direction of their house to show their parents who they close before starting off on their own journey.

"It's no fair Noibat! They are so much younger than me and yet their parents let them go start a journey when mine won't even consider it!" she exclaimed to the lavender colored bat Pokemon sitting on her shoulder.

"Noi..." her Pokemon responded sadly looking at her with big yellow eyes before rubbing his face into her caramel colored hair.

"Only one more year before I'm 18 than they won't be able to stop us from going on our journey" she responded rubbing his loudspeaker shaped ears. "Come on lets head home, no point in hanging around here"

"Corrine wait up!" turning around Corrine's green eyes recognized the curly black hair walking towards her almost immediately.

"Chase!" Corrine yelled happily throwing herself at her old friend with such force that it knocked his traveling companion off his shoulder.

"Ease up Rin, you knocked Froakie off" Chase said trying to get her to release him from her monster hug. Corrine immediately released him and turned her attention to the blue and white frog Pokemon that was now staring up at her from where he landed on the ground.

"Sorry there little friend" she apologized lifting up the Pokemon and putting him back before turning to his trainer "What are you doing back? I thought you were taking the gym challenge in Kalos"

"I decided to just explore Kalos this time around. More importantly what are you still doing here?"

"Why am I always still here?" Corrine muttered angrily as she and Chase headed towards her house.

"They still won't let you go huh?" he questioned. "Dang, I thought that sending you Noibat would've helped them at least consider it."

"Nope, it actually pissed them off which was hilarious. The only reason they didn't make me get rid of him was that he was the only one who could actually get me out of bed in the morning" she chuckled stroking the pokemon that Chase had actually been the one to catch in Kalos and send back to her "And after seeing how well I trained Noibat dad actually allowed me get a pokemon from Professor Cedar. Mom nearly had a conniption though which was entertaining as well."

"So I did some good after all then. Who did you end up choosing?" Chase questioned keeping pace with her while their pokemon conversed from their trainer's shoulders.

"Well you know how much I adore Typhlosion" Corrine replied cheekily referring to one of Chase's pokemon that he left at the daycare her family owns during his travels "So naturally I picked Cyndaquil"

"Well at least you can stop trying to steal Typhlosion from me. I swear he likes you more than me!" Chase complained.

"Well it's not my fault you can't make his food the way he likes it" she teased back "Anyway, they are suffocating me with all this overprotective stuff. The only thing I've been allowed to do involving pokemon is taking care of yours and train Noibat and Cyndaquil. Even with that they only let me do a little bit so to get them to learn any new moves I've had to train them at night and use any money I got from doing work for the neighbors to secretly buy and teach them as many TMs as I could."

"You don't want to get to far a head of yourself. You know they mean well" Chase tried to reason.

"Not even. First chance I get I am so out of here" Corrine vowed, no sooner than she finished her sentence did they approach the gate to where the pokemon were kept. "Hey Noibat why don't you call the gang? I'm sure they will be excited to see Chase"

"Noi bat noi" Noibat agreed flying off his trainer's shoulder and launching a super sonic into the sky above them. All was quiet for a few minutes before footsteps and wings flapping could be heard heading over to their location. In no time flat Chase's Rhyperior, Typhlosion, Pidgeot, and Garchomp appeared assuming that they were going to be fed instead of getting to see their long lost trainer. Before anyone could blink said pokemon were crushing said trainer into the ground in joy.

"Alright guys I know I've missed you too but can you please let me up?" he asked his excited pokemon who after some more prodding finally allowed him back on his feet.

"Corrine is that you? Why did all the pokemon go stampeding?" a voice yelled from the other side of the hill. Corrine groaned loudly as an older version of herself appeared within eyesight. "Oh hello there Chase! It is so nice to see you again! What have you been up to?" her mother Lily fired off one after another.

"He just back from exploring parts of Kalos. You know on a POKEMON JOURNEY" Corrine spit venomously at her mother before Chase could answer the questions.

"Now don't you start that again" Lily scolded her daughter.

"You're damn right I'm going to start this again!" Corrine yelled at her mother.

"Don't you use that language with me young lady!"

"THEN LET ME GO ON A POKEMON JOURNEY!"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

"What's with all the ruckus?" Corrine's father Kevin questioned appearing from the direction that Lily had come from before the shouting match. However the two angry females of the household were going at it like Seviper and Zangoose so he turned to Chase for an answer.

"Same old argument" Chase sighed, causing Kevin to sigh along with him.

"You think they would've come to some sort of agreement after all the times they've been through the same old script"

"YOUR BEING UNREASONABLE ABOUT THIS WHOLE THING!"

"HOW AM I THE ONE WHO IS BEING UNREASONABLE? YOU ARE THE ONE WHO WON'T LET ME GO FOR NO REASON!"

"Would it really be that bad if she went on a journey?" Chase quizzed his friend's father.

"No, in fact I would be more than happy to let her go on a journey" Kevin confessed which caught Chase a bit off guard "Despite what Corrine tells you it is really her mother's doing that she hasn't gone off yet" he looked to where his daughter and wife were arguing before turning back to Chase "I believe she would be a gifted trainer if only she was able to test the waters"

"So why don't you do something about it?" before Kevin could respond the yelling between the two went up a notch.

**"BECAUSE YOU AREN'T READY TO GO THAT'S WHY!" **

**"BOUFFALANT SHIT! YOU ARE THE ONE WHO ISN'T READY WHICH ISN'T FAIR CAUSE I AM!" **it was then that Kevin made the decision that Chase was right, it was high time that he intervened.

"Than why don't you prove to your mother how ready you are?" he voiced which caught both of the females attention.

"What do you mean/What are you talking about dear?" they both asked talking over each other.

"I mean Chase here is an experienced traveler and battler. If Corrine can win a battle against him then I think she is more than ready to be able to go off on her own journey but Corrine if you lose you must stay here" her father reasoned looking both of them in the eye.

"Would you be willing to do that?" Corrine questioned her bewildered looking friend who had just been thrown into the middle of everything.

"Uh sure" Chase stated catching his barrings "Anything I can do to help" his response earned a smile from Corrine.

"Oh please, he is just going to go easy on her so she can go on a journey" Lily scoffed, Chase looked rather offended.

"If there is anything I take seriously it is a battle. I wouldn't go easy on her even if she asked me to"

"And I wouldn't ask him to" Corrine added sending an irritated glare at her mother for question not only Chase's battling skills but hers as well. Seeing as she was outnumbered Lily finally agreed to the conditions.

"Fine. You can battle but if you lose Corrine I swear I want to hear nothing else of this foolish journey!"

"Thank you so much!" Corrine cheered smiling widely at her parents before turning to Chase and dragging him off to where the battle would be held "Hurry up! Let's go!"

* * *

"Charmander let's kick it" Chase said releasing the fire lizard.

"Char!"

"Alright Noibat take 'em out!" Noibat flew off Corrine's shoulder and hovered over the battle field "Be careful Noibat, Charmander has been with him the longest"

"Noi!"

"I will let you have the first move" Chase stated.

"Let's hope you don't regret it. Noibat start off with dark pulse!" Noibat opened his mouth and fired a beam of black and purple circles from the orb inside its mouth at Charmander.

"Counter with flamethrower" Charmander released an incredibly powerful stream of fire from his mouth. The two attacks collided with an explosion but ended up cancelling each other out so neither side received damage.

"Crap" Corrine muttered "Shadow ball" opening his mouth Noibat formed a ball of black and purple energy with black static around it before firing the attack at Charmander.

"Metal claw" Charmander's claws glowed white as he jumped forward slashing at the shadow ball causing it to explode. The force of the explosion sent Noibat spinning.

"Noibat straighten up!" but it was to late, Charmander burst through the smoke caused by the shattered shadow ball to strike Noibat with metal claw. "Noibat are you alright?!" Corrine called as Noibat hit the ground hard.

"Noi..." the injured pokemon grunted pushing itself from the ground into the air again.

"Double team!" Noibat immediately made multiple copies of itself around the battle field.

"Plow through them with rock slide" Chase countered without missing a beat. Charmander raised both of his hands into the air while multiple white rings of energy then appeared above his body high in the sky and large grey boulders come out of the ripples of energy. The boulders then fall down hitting all the Noibats including the real one causing him to cry out in pain and end up on the ground once more.

"Quick! Go in for an aerial ace!" Noibat hoisted itself into the air once more before flying at Charmander, back flipping in the air, then going into a dive, his body becoming surrounded by white streaks.

"Smoke screen!" Chase called. Charmander opened his mouth and released a thick black smoke completely cloaking himself from his opponents view.

"You know how to find him!" Corrine yelled smirking. Not pausing his aerial ace, Noibat dove straight into the smoke emitting ultrasonic waves from his ears as a sort of echolocation to find Charmander in the thick smoke "Now!" Noibat's attack hit hard and now it was Charmander's turn to be sent crashing into the ground.

"Attack with flamethrower!" Charmander quickly lifted his head and released another powerful fire attack.

"Spin and use whirlwind" Noibat spun while flapping his wings causing the wind to swirl around his body. Instead of striking directly the flamethrower wrapped itself around the air funnel that Noibat had encased itself in creating a fire tornado which did very little damage before Noibat broke out with just a flap of his wings.

"Try another rock slide!" Chase ordered.

"Not this time! Noibat use steel wing to break them up!" the sound wave pokemon's wings started to glow a metal-gray color as it flew quickly through the rocks breaking them into smaller pieces "Now send them flying with razor wind!" Noibat's wings started to once again glow white and bright white, crescent-shaped energy waves to be fired from his wings sending not only the razor wind but the rock pieces into Charmander causing him heavy damage.

'She is a lot better than I expected' Chase thought first looking at the two heavily breathing pokemon then to his opponent who wasn't supposed to know much about pokemon much less battling_ 'Either way I have to finish this fast before Charmander takes anymore heavy damage...and I think I know just how to do it'_ "Flamethrower once more!" Charmander once again released a stream of fire at Noibat.

"We will counter it just like last time. Noibat spin and use whirlwind" Corrine smirked becoming overconfident with how the battle was going but her smirk faltered at his next words.

"That's what I was hoping you'd do. Change to dragon rage!"

"Oh no!" Charmander's flamethrower immediately morphed into a powerful blast of blue and black energy beam then shaped like a dragon encasing itself around Noibat like the flamethrower did except this time it Noibat couldn't escape and was taking a lot of damage.

"Now use dragon claw!" Charmander's claws started to glow a light blue before he jumped straight through the center of the tornado striking Noibat with another super effective dragon type move sending him to the ground with a mighty crash.

"Noibat! Are you alright?" Corrine called to her fallen pokemon desperately. The dust slowly settled to reveal a severely struggling Noibat who was trying to get into an upright position.

"Nooiiii..." he groaned in pain.

_'After that last combination we only have enough juice for one more attack...better make it count...'_ Corrine thought to herself before calling out one last attack "Noibat wild charge!" Noibat's eyes flew open as gave one last push. He flew at Charmander with incredible speed, his body becoming surrounded by yellow crackling electricity.

"Then we will use flame charge!" Chase called. Charmander stomped the ground repeatedly with both of its feet until his body became surrounded in red-yellow fire before heading towards Noibat with equal speed and intensity. The two attacks collided with such force that it resulted in another explosion followed by a plume of smoke so thick that both trainers had to cover their eyes.

"Noibat!"

"Charmander!"

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**Coming up next:** Who will be victorious in the battle that decides Corrine's trainer status. If she does manage to win will her mother stay true to her word? Either way someone has something planned for the Highland Region that'll need all available hands ready for battle...


	3. It All Begins!

**Hello my lovely angel faces! I have decided that with the homework load from school that I am going to try and set Saturday as my update day each week. And if I am feeling extra creative you may even get more then one update in a weekend! Now before we get on with this chapter I would like to address some questions that one of you had after reading the last chapter. So the questions that won't be answered within this chapter I will answer directly right here.**

_**#1- While you make a good point about it not being the norm for parents not to let their children go on a journey or be around pokemon it is not unheard of for parents to actually say no. Take Timmy Grimm from the Hoenn series for example, his mother hated pokemon and forbade her son from battling with them. Timmy didn't run away and do a journey he simply hid the fact that he was doing contests and he wears a disguise. Corrine doesn't run away because she would be doing it only cause she didn't get her way. She is going to wait until she is old enough and her parents no longer have a say.**_

_**#2- Like Corrine's father said he would be happy to let her go off on her journey and thinks she would be a gifted trainer so it was his doing that she got to keep the pokemon by convincing her mother to keep it for that reason.**_

_**#3- Since like you noticed the story is more on the anime side Aerial Ace doesn't always hit which is why Noibat uses his echolocation to find his opponent since his vision is obscured.**_

_**#4- Noibat can learn Razor Wind naturally without it having to be a TM**_

_**#5- Charmander hasn't taken a lot of damage but he has been firing off a lot of attacks which takes energy out of the pokemon as well which is why he is breathing heavily.**_

_**#6- All the moves that in Charmander's move set are ones it is able to learn still as an unevolved pokemon. The pokemon can be unevolved and still know powerful moves.**_

**I hope this helps! If anyone has any questions about the story feel free to ask! I will do my best to either have them answered in the next few chapters or if I know that they won't be answered within the story I will do my best to answer them directly before the chapter starts! **

**Now on to the chapter!**

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When the smoke finally cleared both it revealed that both pokemon were fighting to stay upright not wanting to let their trainer down. But Noibat had remnants of electricity still pulsing around his body so it was he who finally fell.

"Recoil..." Corrine whispered to herself completely forgetting the effect that last move would have on her pokemon. Everyone was still, watching Corrine like she was a bomb threatening to blow at any second. Which she probably should've been given that she just lost her ticket to be able to go out on a journey but instead she walked over and knelt next to her fallen pokemon. "Guess that's it then huh?" she stated lifting a said Noibat into her arms.

"Noi..." he replied, eyes watering slightly at the fact that he failed when his trainer depended so heavily on his success.

"Hey none of that. It was my stupid mistake that cost us the match. You were wonderful and I couldn't have asked to try any harder" she scolded lightly before standing and taking a few steps towards Chase and Charmander. "Great battle guys. Charmander you are even stronger than I remember. How about you bring everyone over to the feeding station for a bit of relaxation?"

"Uh sure?" Chase responded rather unsure of himself, Corrine gave him a reassuring smile before she walked by her parents completely ignoring them.

* * *

"You all right?" Chase questioned as he helped Corrine fill the bowls with pokemon food.

"I'm extremely mad at myself for making such a stupid mistake. I completely forgot that wild charge does damage to the user" she grumbled in response "It's ready" placing down the last bowl of food she released Cyndaquil before waiting for Chase to do the same.

"That isn't your fault. You got lost in the heat of the moment which is understandable considering how much was on the line" he responded releasing his Blaziken, Torterra, Electivire, and Samurott to join Charmander, Froakie, and the ones who were staying on the ranch. "What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know. I made a deal with my parents that they were done hearing about it if I lost and I did so I guess my only option is to do what I originally planned and wait until next year" she explained watching all the pokemon socialize and enjoy their meal.

"Well look on the bright side, you will eventually get to go on a journey" Chase stated trying to cheer her up.

"Yeah but I will be so far behind everyone" she responded.

"Not from what I just witnessed" he chuckled "Seriously though, I thought you said your parents wouldn't let you train?"

"Exactly they wouldn't let ME train them but they didn't say anything about THEM training" Corrine snickered pointing to Cyndaquil and Noibat "Typhlosion and the others were extremely helpful in their training as well so I have to thank you for that"

"Well think of it as me repaying you for taking care of them while I was away"

* * *

Up by Corrine's house her mother and father were having a conversation of their own, surprisingly about their daughter's fate which everyone thought had already been decided. Corrine's father was having second thoughts about the deal they made with their daughter.

"All I am saying is that I think that she proved how well she can handle herself out there whether she won the battle or not" Kevin stated but his wife was just not having it exhibiting the extreme stubbornness that seemed to run throughout the female side of the family.

"Absolutely not. She lost. She isn't going. End of discussion." Lily retorted back crossing her arms.

"You know as well as I do that even though she lost she will be out of here on a journey within the year. The question is do we want her to go on a journey despising us" he argued motioning to where the two teens were sitting among the pokemon immersed in whatever conversation they were having.

"We will just let her train her pokemon around here more so she won't feel the need to leave to get stronger" Lily replied.

"The pokemon around here aren't strong enough to make her feel like she is making any significant progress" he continued trying to get his wife to change her mind.

"There are plenty of strong pokemon here at the daycare for her to train with" she threw back refusing to let her husband win the argument.

"And what happens when Chase or one of her other friends comes back from yet another journey? Do you really think she will be able to sit there and listen to all their adventures and not feel angry at us for being the reason she can't join in with stories of her own?" Lily remained quiet. Kevin could see that his words were actually having an effect on his wife so he continued "If she we don't let her go and she finally does leave she may not come back" and that was all it took.

"She is our little girl Kevin! How am I supposed to just let her go off by herself!" Lily cried finally realizing that she had lost the argument but even more upset that her husband was right and if things continued the way they were there was a chance she could lose her daughter. For good.

"Now Lily she isn't a little girl anymore. She has grown up into a strong young women who can take care of herself just like her mother" Kevin assured hugging his wife "And nobody said she would be doing this alone. She would have her pokemon with her, not to mention that gaining traveling companions along the way is quite normal. So how about we go let her know that the deal is off?"

"All right..." Lily finally conceited defeat.

"Excellent. Corrine can you come over her for a minute please?" Kevin called, he vaguely heard his daughter groan before heaving herself off the ground and trudging towards her parents with Chase a few steps behind.

"What now?" She asked bitterly crossing her arms and refusing to look her parents in the eye.

"Your mother has something she would like to tell you" Kevin responded nudging his wife towards his daughter. The two had a staring contest before Lily broke it and addressed her daughter.

"I have decided to let you go on a journey after all. The battle you had did prove that you are more then capable of handling yourself out there"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" Corrine squealed happily not sure if her mother was playing a sick joke but bouncing up and down excitedly none the less.

"BUT" the bouncing immediately stopped "Chase has to go with you. He has more traveling experience and I don't want to have to worry about you dying in the forest somewhere" Corrine's instantly flickered over to Chase's brown eyes apprehensively waiting for his response. The two seemed to have a silent conversation before Chase shrugged.

"Sure why not. It's probably about time that I explored the home region anyway" he stated. Corrine squealed again hugging Chase just long enough to knock the wind out of him before spinning around and pouncing on her parents.

"THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" she repeated over and over again squeezing the life out of them "I promise you won't regret it!" she spun around again and captured her equally excited pokemon in an embrace "Can you believe it guys! We finally get to go travel!"

"Cynda!"

"Noi!" each responded enthusiastically.

"Oh gosh we have to go get packed so we can head out!" she shouted rushing past her father who grabbed her by the back of her gray hoodie before she could storm into the house.

"Now hold on a sec Corrine. It is going to take more then 5 minutes to pack everything you need not to mention that Chase's family is going to want to see him before you whisk him away for another who knows how many months" Kevin explained.

"Not to mention it is almost dinner time" her mother scolded.

"Aw man..." Corrine's mood instantly dropped.

"Tell you what. You let Chase go spend time with his family and I will help you pack everything you need. Then the two of you can head off to Newacre in the morning?" her mother offered.

"Sounds like a plan!" Corrine agreed her mood instantly improving again "Hurry up and go home so we can leave!" she ordered shoving Chase off in the direction before running off into the house with Cyndaquil and Noibat right behind her.

"Pushy much?" Chase called after her before turning to look at his pokemon who were all sleeping with the exception of Froakie who had taken his customary position on Chase's shoulder.

"Don't worry Chase they are more then welcome to stay the night we will make sure they have a good breakfast in the morning as well before you all head off" Kevin offered.

"Thanks a lot"

"No thank you for agreeing to go with her" Lily thanked, Chase just nodded before waving a goodbye and walking towards his own house. "Everything changes tomorrow" she sighed following her husband into the house.

"Everything changes for the better" he replied.

"I suppose so" she murmured closing the door.

* * *

**Coming up next:** Corrine is finally able to live her dream and go on a pokemon journey! And Chase go volunteered to go with her! How will that turn out? What will happen in Newacre town? And what new people will she meet? Review to find out!


	4. Traveling Trouble!

**Hello my lovely angel faces! Sorry this isn't on Saturday like I promised but at least I got it up on the weekend!**

**Now on with the story!**

* * *

Corrine couldn't remember that last time she had that much trouble sleeping through the night. There was so much excited energy coursing throughout her body that she was almost jittery but had to keep rather still since Noibat and Cyndaquil were asleep next to her. Her mother kept her word and helped her word and helped her daughter pack everything she would need on her journey. In the morning the excitement seemed to double as Corrine and Chase went on their way enjoying the weather and pleasant atmosphere. Though it didn't last long...

"I told you we needed to take the other path!" Chase groaned in frustration "Now we are lost"

"We are not lost!" Corrine argued glaring at the map in her hands silently blaming it for their predicament.

"There is no forest between home and Newacre!" Chase retorted back throwing his hands up in the air motioning to the large green surrounding them.

"The map clearly states that we were supposed to take this path to get to there!" Corrine thrust the map into Chase's face. He looked at it for a second before taking it from her hands, turning it the correct way and handed it back to her with a blank look on his face. She looked at the map that was now facing the right direction for a second before crossing her arms and turning her face in defiance "Well maps are stupid and outdated anyway. We shouldn't have to use them anyway"

"Noi..." Noibat sighed at his trainer's antics.

"Then why weren't you using your pokegear?"

"...It's broken..."

"Corrine!"

"Well I never needed it so I never bothered to get it fixed! Sorry I wasn't exactly expecting to actually be able to out on a journey anytime soon!"

"This is ridiculous. Froakie go see if you can find the town from the trees" Froakie nodded before jumping off his trainer's shoulder and into the tree tops.

"That'll take to long. Noibat go see if you can find someone to help us out" Noibat agreed before opening his wings and flying off Corrine's head and into the surrounding area.

"How is finding the town going to take longer then finding a person?" Chase questioned not understanding her logic.

"It is better to trust someone else's directions instead of trusting your sense of direction" she replied.

"You are the one who got us lost!" he argued.

"If you knew there wasn't a forest you should've said something before we entered it" Corrine stated crossing her arms again. Chase just groaned exasperatedly knowing there was no point in trying to win this argument.

"Bet you Froakie comes back first" Chase challenged after a few minutes of silence.

"Your on!" Corrine agreed shaking her traveling partners hand.

**XxXUnnecessary-Scene-TransitionXxX **

"In your face! I told you Noibat would come back first!" Corrine cheered as they followed Noibat to where he spotted help.

"Yeah whatever" Chase muttered rolling his eyes.

"Froakie" his pokemon consoled patting him on the head.

They continued on in relative silence until they came upon a black haired boy who looked to be a few years younger then them sitting down under one of the many trees. As soon as they got closer he turned his attention to them seeming kind of startled that their were other people around.

"Hey there my name is Eric" he introduced himself standing up and fixing his dark blue t-shirt.

"Hi my name is Corrine! This is Chase, Noibat, and Froakie! We were wondering if you happened to know the way to Newacre? We kinda got lost..." Corrine asked rubbing the back of her neck.

"Sure" he stated before pointing over to the left "What you wanna do is follow this path a bit more then make a left and follow that for a about a mile or two. It should bring you to one of the side entrances to the town"

"Thanks so much!" Corrine thanked before whirling around to face Chase "Ha! I told you we would've made it eventually!" she gloated.

"Yeah if we decided to start walking diagonally!" Chase fired back.

"Oh you are just jealous that I was right once again!"

"You are never right!"

"Oh sure which is why things always turn out the way I said they would!"

"When has that happened?!"

"Um excuse me Corrine?" Eric interrupted their entertaining argument.

"Huh? Oh what's up Eric?" Corrine responded momentarily forgetting that he was even there.

"I was wondering if you would be willing to have a one on one battle with me?" Eric asked uncertainly but his light blue eyes sparkled in friendly challenge.

"Sure, why not?" Corrine smiled back pulling Cyndaquil's pokeball off the belt strapped around her thigh "Cyndaquil take 'em out!" the fire type starter appeared on the makeshift battle field in a white flash.

"Poliwag time to fight!" he called pulling a pokeball out of his black pants and throwing into the air. A blue, spherical tadpole with large eyes and a black and white swirl on its belly popped out from pokeball in a bright flash as well.

"Poliwag huh?" Corrine murmured pulling out a flat silver and black pokedex at the pokemon. Immediately a 3D holographic image of Poliwag appeared in front of her. _Poliwag, the Tadpole Pokémon. It has no arms and a pair of newly developed legs that still are not used to walking, but its tail makes it a strong swimmer. Its skin is so thin, its internal organs are visible. _"Has trouble walking around huh? All right we will beat him with speed! Ready Cyndaquil!"

"Quil!"

"Well let's get started. You can have the first move" Eric stated motioning for Corrine to go a head.

"All right Cyndaquil start out with swift!" Cyndaquil opened his mouth shot yellow stars at Poliwag.

"Dodge!" Poliwag obeyed dodging simply by falling to his side allowing the stars to fly right over him.

"Try again Cyndaquil! This time run around Poliwag while firing!" Cyndaquil once again opened his mouth and released the yellow stars while he ran in quick circles around Poliwag.

"Use hidden power as a shield!"

"Wag!" immediately Poliwag's body and eyes glowed green before several green energy orbs appeared and started circling its body. The swift crashed into it the orbs with an explosion obscuring Poliwag from view, once the smoke cleared it revealed that the make shift shield had done its job and Poliwag was unharmed.

"Now fire them at Cyndaquil" Eric ordered. Poliwag launched the green orbs quickly at Cyndaquil who didn't have time to dodge and ended up taking the hit.

"Cyndaquil use dig to get out of there" Cyndaquil instantly burrowed underground escaping the rest of the barrage of orbs.

"Poliwag wait until it comes up then use body slam!"

"Poli!" Poliwag watched the ground tensely waiting for his opponent to attack, a second later he jumped up as Cyndaquil appeared beneath him then throwing his body weight down onto the unsuspecting fire type.

"Quil!" Cyndaquil called out in pain.

"Now water gun!" Poliwag released a powerful stream of water from his mouth directly at Cyndaquil.

"Cyndaquil to the side then use nature power!" Cyndaquil slid to the side just before the water gun impacted. His body was then outlined in white as he used nature power which since he was standing in the grass turned into an engeryball which he then promptly fired at Poliwag.

"Poli!" it was his turn to yell out in pain.

"Use quick attack!" Cyndaquil's body became outlined in blue then he launched himself at the water pokemon with such incredible speed that it left an white streak trailing behind him.

"Hypnosis!" Poliwag's body immediately became outlined in a multicolored light, he waited until Cyndaquil was as close as possible before firing multicolored circles off his body promptly putting Cyndaquil to sleep. "We got you now" Eric grinned.

"You'd think that wouldn't you" Corrine smirked which confused Eric so she decided to enlighten him "Cyndaquil use sleep talk" Cyndaquil began to use dig while still asleep escaping whatever attack may have been coming his way.

"Use water gun to get him out of the hole!" another stream of water shot from Poliwag into the hole that Cyndaquil just escaped into. A sleeping Cyndaquil was launched out of the ground on a geyser of water "Now wake up slap" Poliwag swung his tail smacking Cyndaquil.

"Oh no! Cyndaquil wake up!" but Cyndaquil was still sound a sleep and was taking heavy damage from that wake up slap for it.

"Finish this with water pulse!" Eric ordered wanting to finish the battle now. Poliwag hopped backwards firing a powerful sphere of water directly onto Cyndaquil...and just like that the battle was over. Corrine sighed sadly before walking over and picking up her fallen fire pokemon who was now awake but in a good amount of pain.

"You all right Cyndaquil?"

"Cynda..." he responded weakly.

"You did great. Take a rest now" she stated returning him to his pokeball before standing up to congratulate Eric on his victory "Awesome battle Eric! You were amazing Poliwag!" she smiled at the two.

"Thanks! You were great to and I have to say you surprised me with that sleep talk" Eric responded while Poliwag stood proudly at his side.

"You still won"

"Both of you battled hard" Chase interjected "We should probably get going though"

"Right. If you said the town is that way then we should get there faster if we cut through here. Bye Eric, thanks for everything! Come on Noibat" Corrine stated mood doing a 180 as her excitement took control again and she bounded off the path into the forest taking her so called short cut with Noibat gliding after her.

"Wait I didn't say-" Eric called after her but she was already gone.

"Ugh she is going to drive me crazy" Chase muttered to himself "Thanks Eric, see you again. Let's go Froakie" Chase said before jogging to catch up with his impatient traveling companion.

**XxXUnnecessary-Scene-TransitionXxX**

"Man I can't believe we lost again..." Corrine groaned to Noibat who was sitting on her head.

"Noi bat noi" he replied.

"Your right! We will totally own our next battle!" Corrine cheered happily before actually taking a second to look at her surroundings and find that she was lost again "Great...this is just what I need...hey maybe he can help me" she spotted a man with silver hair dressed in a strange black outfit with multicolored trim "Excuse me?"

"Ah what are you doing here? There isn't supposed to be anyone out here!" the man screeched turning to face her, he had a strange symbol on his chest. It almost looked like a wave with vertical lines stretching across it in multicolored trim "Stunky flamethrower!" the small purple skunk at his ankles immediately released a stream of fire at the two of them.

"What the hell?! Noibat use gust" Corrine ordered in anger.

"Noi bat bat bat" Noibat flapped his wings and the gusts of wind canceled out the flamethrower.

"Now use aerial ace" Noibat went into back flip before becoming surrounded by white streaks and diving at Stunky.

"Toxic" Stunky jumped and spat a glob of purple liquid right in Noibat's face sending the bat pokemon crashing into the ground.

"Noi" he groaned feeling the effects of the poison immediately as purple electricity pulsed around his body.

"Noibat hang in there and use dark pulse" Noibat struggled into the air and had just opened his mouth to begin gathering energy for the attack when something unexpected happened.

"Sneasel use ice beam!" Two voices called in unison! Out of nowhere Noibat was hit by the two attacks immediately fell to the ground again. One of those attacks would've been bad enough since being a flying/dragon type he was doubly weak to ice attacks but being hit by two severely injured him.

"Noibat no!" Corrine cried falling to her knees and scooping up her fallen pokemon in her arms "What the hell was that for!?"

"What do we have here?" one of the new comers asked coming out of the forest dressed in the same outfit and silver hair as the first guy, a women and the two Sneasel followed after him.

"This brat was snooping around where she shouldn't belong" the first guy answered crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well we will just have to take care of that won't we? The boss doesn't want any witnesses" the girl purred with an evil smirk. _Great it is my first day on my journey and I end up about to be killed for not knowing what the fuck is going on. Mom is so not going to be happy..._ Corrine groaned in her head.

"True enough" Sneasel guy stated "Fine. Sneasel use ice beam again"

"You to Sneasel"

"Stunky flamethrower" each pokemon opened its mouth and fired the attack at Corrine who instantly folded her body over her fallen pokemon waiting for the attacks...they never made contact.

"Frenzy plant!" giant spiked roots came out of the ground in front of Corrine blocking the attacks.

"Chase!" Corrine cheered when she saw her friend appear through the trees behind them with Torterra by his side and boy did they not look happy.

"Torterra use leaf storm" Chase ordered glaring at the 3 opponents that had royally pissed him off.

"Terra!" Torterra bellowed as the tree on his back started to glow a light green and it released a cyclone of glowing leaves at three pokemon getting an instant K.O.

"Damn it! Retreat for now!" Sneasel guy ordered his two counterparts.

"Right!" they agreed returning their fallen pokemon and running off into the forest.

"You better watch your backs brats. Team Shadow Gear doesn't take kindly to people screwing around with our plans" he growled before returning his pokemon and following the others.

"Right I will be sure to beware the fleeing clowns" Chase called back sarcastically "Idiots" he growled before turning to Corrine "You all right? You aren't hurt are you? Corrine shook her head silently just looking at the pokemon who was shivering in pain from the poison. "Come on lets get him to the pokemon center. Newacre is only a few minutes away" Corrine allowed Chase to coax her into a standing position.

"Thank you Chase. You to Torterra" Corrine whispered sparing her rescuers a thankful glance.

"No problem" Chase assured.

"Terra" the continent pokemon agreed.

"Come on lets hurry he looks pretty bad. Torterra return" Chase returned the pokemon before he and Corrine took off into a sprint towards the town that caused them so much trouble just to find.

* * *

**Coming up next:** Corrine and Chase finally get to Newacre after all that trouble but instead of getting to explore a bit they have to go straight to the pokemon center. What other trouble will the two find themselves in? And what is there next move after everyone is all healed up?


	5. Repercussions, Arguments, and Battling!

**Greetings my lovely angel faces! I have another chapter for you so much sooner than I thought I would! How can that be you ask? Well you actually have my good friend Inhuman X for helping me run ideas past him and helping me with things when the ideas come to a stand still. So big thanks and you should definitely go check out his stories if you aren't reading them already which everyone should be just cause well the writing speaks for itself! Anyway I am done ranting for right now and will let you get on to the chapter.**

**Ookami-Lover: **I am still playing around with the idea of CorrinexChase it may or may not happen. If that is a popular opinion then I will see what I can do.

**And here we go!**

* * *

Time had never passed slower for Corrine then it did when they were sitting in the pokémon center waiting for news on Noibat and Cyndaquil, granted Nurse Joy said that they would both be fine and that all Cyndaquil need was some rest while Noibat needed some antidote and a few super potions before they would be in tip top shape. Corrine made a mental note to stop at pokémart and stalk up on things like antidotes and potions, maybe find a berry stall to stalk up a bunch of those as well.

"They'll be fine so you can relax" Chase stated dryly from where he was leaning against the wall a few feet from where Corrine was sitting. Her head shot up when she caught the tone of his voice and she definitely didn't like it.

"What's wrong with you? You were fine when we got here" she asked narrowing her eyes at him.

"Yeah well I'm not fine now. Not like you don't know what is wrong anyway" he replied still not looking at her.

"No smart guy I don't hence why I'm asking" Corrine snapped "It isn't like you were the one who got attacked in woods by a bunch of creeps"

"Well that was your own fault"

"What was that!?"

"You heard me! This could've all been avoided if you hadn't just run off like that but of course Corrine knows best! What were you thinking walking past someone like that? Let alone talk to them!"

"Oh my bad. Next time I will make sure to go running through the tree tops so I don't pass anyone walking by" tempers were getting rather heated between the two now.

"Can you be serious for once?" Chase growled "If you hadn't gone off on your 'shortcut' I wouldn't have had to save you"

"Oh thank Arceus for Chase the almighty pokémon trainer! May the world listen to his vast knowledge!" Corrine mocked in a high voice "I already said thank you and spent the rest of the way over here expressing how much I owe you but you kept saying not to worry about. What do want from me?" she threw a venomous glare his way.

"I want you to stop being so damn impulsive that's what I want! If you had just listened to me or had your pokégear fixed then we wouldn't have even gotten lost in the forest! If you were more prepared you wouldn't get us into these types of situations!" Chase was now yelling, Corrine just scoffed and stood up to leave not wanting to hear any of this right now "Where are you going?"

"Well your Highness I am going out to make myself more 'prepared' I hope that meets your grand approval" she spat before she stormed out of the pokémon center. The whoosh of the doors followed by the pleasant sight of all the people happily doing things around the friendly little town of Newacre was enough to keep from exploding in anger. She took notice of a berry stall positioned across from her on the other side of the town square so she started walking in that direction; much to her displeasure Chase wasn't that far behind her.

"See! There you go again! Why do you always have to-"

"All right Chase I get it, give it a rest! You aren't the only one who realized I need to be prepared and careful. I didn't just walk through that whole situation with my eyes closed you know" she interrupted as they reached the berry stall.

"Well hello there young lady what can I get for you?" the women running the stall asked cheerily looking at the two with her kind light blue eyes.

"Yes ma'am can I get berries that you go along with some persim, bluk, and nanab berries?" Corrine asked looking down at the wide assortment of berries that were laid out in front of her.

"Of course dear! Let me gather those for you real quick" the women chirped happily turning around to get the correct berries together. With that getting taken care of Corrine turned back to Chase who had remained quiet.

"Look I know you are trying to help and you are right I shouldn't have run off like that" she admitted begrudgingly "But my biggest problem with all of this is that I just let those crappily dressed idiots beat the pants off of us and Noibat paid the price for it" she started seething again at the thought of being beat so easily.

"They outnumbered you three to one. It was an unfair battle" Chase answered seeing that he wasn't going to get much more than Corrine admitting she was wrong so he decided that he got his point across and to just let it go.

"Ha, even if that is true that doesn't explain much. I've had three battles so far and I've lost every single one of them. Some pokémon trainer I am turning out to be" she scoffed slightly.

"It was a close battle between the two of us. I've just been at it longer"

"And what about that battle with Eric? We got beat by a pokémon who didn't move more than a few hops"

"He had a type advantage"

"That and the fact that Poliwag and I trained to battle so he wouldn't have to move around so much since he has so much trouble walking around" a voice interjected, both trainers turned to see the familiar face of Eric standing next to the berry stall.

"Eric! What are you doing here?" they asked.

"I actually live here in Newacre" he responded before turning to the berry stall "Hey mom"

"Hey honey, are these friends of yours?" she asked.

"Yeah ma, met them in the forest"

"Oh good! Well seeing as you are friends with my Eric here are your berries free of charge" Eric's mom stated.

"I couldn't possibly-"

"Oh nonsense now here you are dear" she stated shoving the basket full of berries into Corrine's arms "Also you two should come over for dinner tonight!"

"We wouldn't want to-" Chase tried to state but he was interrupted like Corrine had been.

"We look forward to seeing you! Now Eric why don't you take your friends to explore the town" and with that Eric's mom turned to another customer leaving the two standing there with a shell shocked expression on their faces and Eric to just laugh at them.

"All right come on guys I will show you around"

**XxXUnnecessary-Scene-TransitionXxX**

The trio headed to the pokémart to grab some supplies before heading back to the pokémon center to receive Corrine's two pokémon as well as Eric's Poliwag. When they got there Noibat and Cyndaquil were sitting on the counter waiting for Corrine and Nurse Joy was waiting with Poliwag's pokéball. After everything was all settled they all walked out back of the pokémon center to relax and get to know each other.

"So I am glad you two were able to get here without too much trouble. When you took off through the forest like that I was a bit concerned that you wouldn't get here safely." Eric said leaning back in his chair.

"Well...we didn't actually get here without trouble..." Corrine trailed off rubbing Noibat's head.

"What do you mean?"

"Corrine was attacked by a group of weirdos who call themselves Team Shadow Gear. They outnumbered her after they injured Noibat and were going to have their pokémon attack her directly" Chase picked up where Corrine left off.

"I've heard of those creeps before. Old man Stevens said he has seen them in and out of that forest for a few weeks now. Said they took a Pinsir out of there about 3 days ago and they seem to be looking for something else" Eric explained. There was a tense silence as the information was received so Corrine decided to change the subject.

"Well enough about those lunatics. So Eric you are a pretty good pokémon trainer if our battle was anything to go by. You challenging the gyms around here?" She asked easing the tension away.

"Nah, I'm not really sure what I want to be doing so since I have nothing particular in mind to go after I kinda just go around challenging people to battles. Which is why I kind of challenged you pretty randomly earlier. What about you two?"

"Well I'm here to take on the league and win the whole thing...though I'm not off to a rocking start" Corrine stated rubbing the back of her neck.

"Same goes for me" Chase answered casually.

"Oh great..." Corrine groaned dropping her head on the table for a second before it shot up again "You didn't tell me you were going to compete in the league!" She said accusingly.

"Well what did you think I would be doing?"

"Oh I don't know...maybe showing me the ropes and stuff!" Chase rolled his eyes.

"You know very well that I haven't taken on this league yet. How could you think I would just travel around with you gym to gym and not challenge them myself. Besides you seem to have all the ropes. Just stop getting tied up in them"

"I'll tie you up in them" Corrine muttered. Chase rolled his eyes at her again before turning his attention back to Eric who had been enjoying their bickering.

"So does that mean you've challenged other leagues Chase?" Eric questioned.

"Yup, all of them except Kalos and here. I actually won Johto and Unova" Chase responded proudly with Corrine mimicking him and making faces in the background which she promptly stopped and pretended to be looking at the sky when he turned to look at her.

"Wow nice going. Must mean you are pretty strong..." Eric trailed hinting at what he wanted.

"Well why don't we test it out" Chase said standing up from the table and motioned to the battle field a few feet away from them.

"Really?!" Eric exclaimed jumping up excitedly.

"Sure, but just because you don't beat Corrine-" Chase started.

"Do you really have a need to remind everyone of that again?!" Corrine snapped

"-you are going to win easily" he finished.

"Wouldn't dream of it" Eric responded.

**XxXUnnecessary-Scene-TransitionXxX**

Both boys walked over to either end of the battlefield while Corrine sat there with Cyndaquil and Noibat slept on her lap still recovering from the long day they had.

"All right how does a one on one sound? Go Mienfoo!" Eric asked pulling out a pokéball. Corrine pulled out her pokédex _'__Mienfoo, the Martial Arts Pokémon. Mienfoo's sharp claws strike quickly and precisely. It also overwhelms opponents with its skillful combination attacks.'_

"Fine with me, Froakie?" Chase looked at his water pokémon who nodded and immediately took his place on the battlefield "Corrine come referee for us would you?"

"I'm kind of busy at the moment" she replied hotly motioning to the sleeping pokémon on her lap.

"Would you be helpful for once?"

"Besides you uber battlers shouldn't have any trouble with a one on one"

"Corrine!"

"Oh fine" she sighed picking up the sleeping pokémon and putting them in the hood of her sweater before standing and walking over to the battlefield as well "This is a one on one battle between Eric and Chase. The battle will end when one sides pokémon are unable to battle. Yada yada yada you know how this goes. Battle begin"

"Great thanks for that" Chase said dryly.

"That's what I am here for" Corrine shot back with a smile causing Chase to roll his eyes at her again for the millionth time today.

"Froakie use-"

"Use fake out" Eric called not letting Chase finish his command. Mienfoo shot forward and clapped its paws together causing a shockwave of air to shoot out and send Froakie backwards and causing him to flinch. "Now use aura sphere" Mienfoo put his paws together and formed a dark blue ball of energy before firing it at Froakie.

"Recover and use water pulse" Chase commanded calmly. Froakie quickly got itself together and created a blue sphere of water between his hands and fired it at the oncoming aura sphere. The two attacks seemed equal in power until the water pulse exploded into a wave of water that sent Mienfoo sliding backwards.

"Crap, Mienfoo use stone edge!" two rings of energy surrounded Mienfoo before they formed into rocks that started circling her body before firing them at Froakie.

"Dodge" Froakie quickly dodged every single stone that flew at him by spinning, flipping, and jumping so no matter how hard Eric and Mienfoo tried he remained unharmed.

"He is so fast" Eric stated in amazement before calling out another attack "Switch to grass knot" Mienfoo's eyes began to glow green and two blades of grass knotted themselves around Froakie's foot as he dodged the last of the stone edge. "Let's end this with high jump kick!" Mienfoo's knee began to glow purple as she jumped towards the now captive Froakie knee first.

"Scald to blast it back" Froakie released a streaming of scalding hot water surrounded by steam from his mouth blasting Mienfoo like it was intended. Mienfoo was sent crashing down to the ground where she took heavy damage not only from scald but from the failed high jump kick.

"Foo!" she yelled out in intense pain grabbing her knee before her body was engulfed in flames.

"Mienfoo! What on earth is that? There wasn't any fire type move used?" Eric yelled panicked.

"Scalds secondary effect is it may cause a burn to the pokemon who was hit with it" Corrine voiced before Chase had a chance to open his mouth.

"I'm impressed" Chase glanced at her and she just smirked at him.

"Mienfoo can you get up?" Eric begged his fallen pokémon. Mienfoo tried to get up but was once again engulfed in flames from the burn.

"All right lets wrap this up. Froakie use your frubbles to keep them from moving" Froakie grabbed the bubbles on his neck and threw them at Mienfoo causing her to stick on the ground where she lay. "Now aerial ace" Froakie ran towards Mienfoo so quickly that he became surrounded in white streaks before slamming into Mienfoo.

"Foo!" she cried weakly from the super effective attack before succumbing to the effects of the burn that sapped the last little bit of her energy.

"Mienfoo is unable to battle. Which means Chase and Froakie are the winners" Corrine called walking towards the two as Eric returned Mienfoo after thanking her for a good fight "Great battle guys"

"She's right. Nice move with that grass knot, you almost tripped us up with that move" Chase stated.

"That's the whole reason for the mood smart guy" Corrine snarked, instead of replying Chase just lifted his hand and pushed the side of her head and to respond Corrine tried to bite his hand.

"Thanks Chase. You and Froakie were just too fast for us" Erick replied chuckling slightly.

"Maybe next time"

"Maybe" and with that the two trainers shook hands.

* * *

**Coming up next:** Corrine and Chase finally make their way into the gym town of Stonemeadow with the help of their new friend Eric and his family. Will Corrine finally get to partake in her first gym battle? Knowing her luck it is anyone's guess...she may just have to deal with some problems in a mine first.


	6. StoneMeadow Matches!

**Greetings my lovely angel faces! I have another chapter for you! I hope you all enjoy reading the story as I have enjoyed writing it!**

**And here we go!**

* * *

After spending the evening with Eric and his family Corrine and Chase were able to get to Stonemeadow the next day with the help of Eric's father who had errands to run in the town. To the duos surprise Eric asked if he could accompany them for a while. Thus they gained a new traveling companion and Corrine a sparring partner. Stonemeadow looked exactly like the name depicted that it would. It was placed in the center of a large grassland with hundreds of giant black stones that were taller than most of the houses were spread throughout the area.

"I wonder what these are for." Corrine murmured craning her neck back in order to see the very top of the stone.

"I highly doubt they are actually for something but you can definitely see where this place got its name" Chase replied also staring at the stone. And of course Corrine being Corrine felt the need to go up and touch it.

"They are hot!" She gave a surprised gasp.

"What?" Chase's hand shot forward and joined hers on the stone.

"Let me see" Eric added his hand to the pile.

"What's going on?" Chase questioned.

"It is reacting to your energy" a voice came from behind the trio causing them to jump. Spinning around they were greeted with the sight of a white haired women in a blue dress. The Mawile at her feet looked up at the group and smiled.

"Our energy?" Corrine asked pulling out her pokédex _'Mawile, the Deceiver Pokémon. Mawile has jaw-like appendages at the ends of its steel horns. It deceives any opponent who lowers its guard with its hypnotic expression, then quickly spins around to bite them.'_

"Yes dear, you see these stones react to the positive energy kind hearted trainers like yourselves emit out into the world" she explained coming up next to them and putting her hand on the stone. Only when Mawile came over and put her hand on the stone as well did something strange happen. The temperature of the stone spiked causing the trio to yelp and remove their hands while the women chuckled at them.

"What was that!?" Eric questioned.

"That is the stone reacting to the strong bond between a person and their pokémon. Trainers come from all over the region to put their hands on these stones to measure just how strong their bond is" the women explained.

"No way" Corrine muttered to herself, her hand found its way back onto the strangely smooth black surface of the stone.

"Noi?" Noibat walked down the length of her arm and put his small paw against the stone just above her fingertips. The stone heated up a bit more but nowhere near as much as it did when Mawile and the women touched it. Noibat's ears drooped and he jumped into Corrine's arms.

"Guess we have some work to do huh?" She sighed, feeling the same way as her pokémon; she stroked him in an attempt to make them both feel better.

"Chin up dear, your bond with your pokémon is incredibly strong and clear. The stones just react more strongly with certain pokémon then they do with, others that's all" the women assured looking at the duo with her kind blue eyes.

"Why is that?" Eric asked watching as Chase and Froakie tried the same thing only to get the same result as Corrine and Noibat.

"No one really knows. Some say the ones that the stone reacts strongly to have a stronger connection with the land they live on. Others say that a trainer who has one of these pokémon have to work harder to gain the trust of said pokémon and when they do an even more powerful bond is created. But neither idea is known for certain"

"What do you think?" Chase questioned.

"I can't really say. All I know is that a loving connection is vital in the lives between pokémon and humans"

"Has there ever been someone who touched the stone and it didn't react?" Corrine wondered, she almost regretted her question when the women's kind face turned stony.

"There was. Back about 15 years ago there was a local girl who had just begun her journey along with a few others that were of age. For a child it is supposed to be an exciting experience filled with happiness and when the pokémon is in your possession. Love. But this girl was a strange one that filled the people of the town with unease whenever she walked by. She didn't treat her pokémon badly per say but she didn't show them much affection. She used them as tools, her only mission was to get stronger and soon her pokémon began to exhibit her icy exterior. She eventually left on a journey and all returned to normal in the town, until one day she came back and put her hand on the stone with her first pokémon…"

"What happened?"

"The stone didn't react how it was supposed to…instead of warming up she seemed to sap all the energy out of it. This unnerved the townsfolk so much that she was exiled from the town and hasn't been seen since…"

"So she was given the heave ho just because the stone went wonky? That doesn't seem right"

"No she was given the 'heave ho' because when it happened she had on such an evil smile that it sent shivers down my spine"

"Wait" Chase stopped her "So if the stone reacts to the positive energy and goodness in a person's hear and stone's effect was reversed that means…" the women nodded.

"Yes…there was no goodness within her" Corrine shivered at her grim tone "But enough of that, my name is Stella and as you have noticed this is my good friend Mawile" Stella stated cheerily, Mawile waved.

"Oh right! Excuse me, I'm Corrine and this is Noibat" Corrine introduced.

"Noi!" Noibat sounded off his own greeting.

"Right, I'm Chase and this is Froakie" Chase added.

"Kie!"

"And my name is Eric" Eric finished off all the introductions.

"How lovely, nice to meet all of you! Now what brings you to our little town? It obviously wasn't for these" she said motioning to the stone.

"We are here to challenge the gym leader" Chase answered.

"Well those two are. I'm just the cheering section" Eric chuckled.

"That is just as important as the pokémon and trainer that are going into battle. Don't doubt your importance" Stella scolded him lightly before turning the other two "As for your gym battle. I would head over to the dig sight on the outskirts of town" she pointed behind them where the tops of cranes were just visible over the tops of some houses "The gym leader usually spends her time there when she doesn't have any challengers"

"Well I guess that's where we are headed" Corrine stated looking at her traveling companions who nodded in response.

"Thank you very much for all your help" Chase added.

"Of course! Good luck on your gym battle you two!" Stella waved at the young trainer's retreating forms.

"Maw!" Mawile called waving as well.

**XxXUnnecessary-Scene-TransitionXxX**

As the trio got closer and closer to the mine they immediately began to feel like something was really off. The cranes were completely still as were all the other digging and moving machines. It was completely silent.

"Aren't mines supposed to be...you know...active?" Corrine questioned looking around in confusion.

"That's what the name 'active mine' means" Chase retorted, Corrine gave him a nasty look.

"Well why do you think it's so quiet then? Didn't Stella say this is where the gym leader spends all her free time?" Eric wondered interrupting the two before another argument could start.

"Yeah, she did...maybe they are working inside of the mines? Though that doesn't explain why it is completely silent..." Chase rambled wracking his brain to find a logical explanation.

"Maybe they have something to do with it" Corrine seethed glaring straight ahead. In the middle of the rock quarry they could see a bunch of workers tied up and all the pokémon trying to break free off cages. All over the area were the silver haired, black suited members Team Shadow Gear. Immediately the trio dropped into a crouch at the top of the ridge so their presence wouldn't be noticed.

"What do you think they are doing?" Eric whispered only for Chase to shush him.

"Quiet! Listen."

"Make sure you don't leave anything behind. We need every heap of rock here." A man called out, he had dark blue hair instead of silver and the weird symbol was smaller and in the right corner of his uniform instead of smack dab in the middle.

"Sir!" The grunts saluted doubling their efforts.

"What are they doing?" Corrine whispered to the other two as they watched the black suits scurry around and collect shards of black stone. A group also attached a harness type thing around a giant stone that seemed to be have been knocked down.

"I'm not sure" Chase answered.

"Also you make sure you get those pokémon loaded onto the truck pronto" the blue haired man who they deducted was the boss ordered.

"But sir? These aren't the pokémon we are after" a grunt stated.

"True, but they will either be useful or be worth a handsome price on the black market. So pack them up"

"Sir!" The grunt saluted and rushed to carry out his orders.

"You won't get away with this!" A voice cut in viciously. The boss turned to where the workers were tied up and smirked.

"Well you aren't really in any position to stop us now are you?" He addressed a women dressed in a khaki explorer outfit "I would've thought a gym leader would put up a better fight. Your pokémon will definitely sell for a generous price" the women who he identified as the gym leader just scowled at him.

"We need to do something!" Corrine whispered urgently moving away from the boys and along the outer rim of quarry.

"Wait a minute! We need to come up with a plan!" Chase hissed at her afraid she would go charging in like usual.

"I know! I learned my lesson" she whisper yelled back "I will be quiet-" she was cut off by the ground underneath her crumbled causing her to go tumbling down the incline and instantly grabbing the attention of the grunts.

"What was that!?" A guard called.

"Well there goes the element of surprise" Chase sighed shaking his head before turning to Eric "Come on. Might as well make a grand entrance" and with that he went sliding down the incline after Corrine...only he was on his feet.

"Not a single word" Corrine hissed threateningly pulling herself off the ground as Chase and Eric slid to a stop next to her.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Chase replied sarcastically.

"Well what do we have here? A trio of trespassers perhaps?" boss dude said, his voice made Corrine bristle in anger.

"The only one who is trespassing around her is you!" She spat pointing a finger at him. "Now collect your band of losers, release these people and pokémon and scram!"

"Who you calling a loser runt?!" A voice yelled a grunt appeared in view and it turned out to be the Sneasel guy from the forest.

"Silence Malcolm." The boss ordered.

"Just who are you and what are you doing here?" Chase demanded.

"Like I would reveal our plans to the likes of you" the dude scoffed "I will however inform you that my name is Ezra and this is only the beginning of the end" he turned to Malcolm "Go and get that stone out of here" he ordered, the sound of helicopter blades whirred above them.

"Sir" Malcolm saluted begrudgingly turning to go to the helicopter.

"I don't think so! Cyndaquil take 'em out!" Corrine yelled tossing the pokéball. The Johto starter appeared and immediately ignited the flames on its back "You may have won last time but let's see how well you do without advantage" she smirked at him.

"Why you irritating little punk" he roared "Sneasel take care of this pest"

"Let's see what we are up against" Corrine muttered, _'Sneasel, the Sharp Claw Pokémon. Sneasel can extend or retract its claws instantly during attack.'_

"Really now Malcolm, can't follow a simple order" Ezra sighed before he pulled out a pokéball "Fine we will take care of the trouble maker"

"Go Electivire" Chase ordered. Electivire came out sparks flying ready for a fight.

"Now what's this?" Ezra smirked.

"You aren't going to be double teaming this time. You want a fight you are going to be facing us"

"If you wish. Go Bisharp" Ezra released his pokémon. '_Bisharp, the Sword Blade Pokémon. This pitiless Pokémon commands a group of Pawniard to hound prey into immobility. It then moves in to finish the prey off'._

"Eric, go take care of the other grunts. Froakie you and Noibat go free the pokémon" Chase ordered not taking his eyes off Ezra.

"Got it! Go Poliwag, Eevee and Mienfoo" Eric called releasing his two pokémon.

"Froakie!"

"Noi!" Both pokémon rushed off to do their assigned missions.

"Enough standing around and let's end this!" Malcolm roared.

"Then let's dance old man" Corrine taunted smirking as the vein in Malcolm's head popped "What's a matter? Big tough guy scared to get his butt handed to him by little me"

"I'll show you who is going to get their butt handed to them" he snarled, Corrine just started smirking some more.

"Then let's see what you can do" she then turned and ran to the left away from where Chase and Ezra were about to start their battle. No way was she going to give Malcolm the opportunity to cheat again, she also knew that Sneasel had to be strong even with Cyndaquil's type advantage she will have to rely on speed and strategy if she wanted to come out on top.

"That's it. No more running!" Malcolm yelled.

"Fine" Corrine sighed dramatically "If just that little run got you winded then we might as well end this now" she boredly looked at her nails while watching her opponents anger continuously rise. This was good, the angrier he got the more likely he was to make mistakes which she could use to her advantage. "Cyndaquil use flamethrower" Cyndaquil released a powerful stream of fire from his mouth towards Sneasel.

"Dodge" Malcolm yelled, Sneasel jumped to the side with incredible speed "How do you like that" he smirked evily.

"Meh, kind of mediocre but hey if that's the best you can do" Corrine responded blowing her bangs out of her face.

"YOU INSOLENT UGH SNEASEL SHADOW BALL" the angry grunt bellowed. Sneasel puts its claws together and creates a dark purple ball in between its hands. It then fires it at the opponent.

"Stay"

"Quil" Cyndaquil wasn't sure what his trainer was planning but he trusted her judgment so he braced himself and took the attack.

"What's the matter? Know you are going to lose so trying to take yourself out" he taunted.

"Nah, I figured you needed to feel good about yourself. Might as well make the battle interesting if you are going to set the bar so low" she taunted back making sure his anger levels kept rising.

"GRR SNEASEL USE DARK PULSE" Sneasel put its hands together in front of its chest and gathered energy together before firing a beam of black and purple at Cyndaquil.

"Dodge only some of it" Corrine ordered lowly so Cyndaquil heard her but the idiot across the field didn't. She knew she was playing a dangerous game making Cyndaquil take all these attacks but she needed Malcolm to get overconfident so he would come in for a close range attack. Cyndaquil was beginning to understand the plan so he jumped to the side and let the attack skim his side so he didn't take so much damage but threw himself to the ground for effect. "Cyndaquil! Can you get up?" Corrine called making sure to play it up.

"Cynda" he replied getting up slowly for effect.

"Haha no who is setting a low bar!" Malcolm called.

"Still you. Real trainers shouldn't rely on lucky shots!" Corrine just kept jabbing.

"THAT'S IT SNEASEL GIVE THEM ANOTHER SHADOW BALL" another shadow ball was launched straight at Cyndaquil.

"Down" Corrine stated lowly. Cyndaquil waited until the shadow ball was millimeters from hitting before he jumped backwards so the attack hit the ground in front of him and allowed the force to throw him backwards. "Cyndaquil please get up!" Corrine called still playing up the dramatics while Cyndaquil stayed on the ground hardly moving.

"SNEASEL POISON JAB!" Malcolm ordered seeing red. Sneasel shot forward a still Cyndaquil with incredible speed and it's claw glowing purple.

"Bingo" Corrine smirked, waiting until Sneasel was directly in front of Cyndaquil with nowhere to run before calling an attack "Flame wheel."

"Quil!" Cyndaquil's eyes snapped open and he ignited the flames on his back and started rolling directly into Sneasel.

"Snea!" Sneasel yelled in pain.

"WHAT!?" Malcolm yelled angrily.

"Idiot…Cyndaquil keep it going with dig" Cyndaquil disappeared into a hole.

"Stand up and hit it with shadow ball when it comes up" Sneasel waited until Cyndaquil appeared underneath it and dodged before firing it's shadow ball and got a direct his.

"Keep going round and round Cyndaquil! Up and down!" Corrine called.

"Keep firing shadow ball" Cyndaquil continued to popping out of the ground and disappearing into another spot while Sneasel continued to fire shadow balls whenever he appeared, some of them hit some of them didn't either way Cyndaquil was beginning to take a lot of damage.

"DAMN IT SNEASEL KNOCK THE RAT AWAY WITH METAL CLAW!" Malcolm roared in anger. Sneasel's claw started to glow silver and he swung his claw as Cyndaquil came up again knocking him backwards.

"Hang in there just a bit more!" Corrine called when Cyndaquil landed next to the first hole he dug.

"DARK PULSE!" Malcolm raged.

"Protect!" Instantly Cyndaquil's body was covered in a blue and green barrier making dark pulse bounce off harmlessly "No flamethrower!"

"STUPID KID! THERE IS NO WAY A FLAMETHOWER WILL REACH SNEASEL WHEN IT IS TRAPPED IN THERE! SNEASEL KEEP UP THE PRESURE!"

"It is you who is the dumbass" Corrine smirked crossing her arms over her arms "Go for it full power" while keeping up the protect Cyndaquil shot a powerful flamethrower into the hole which traveled the underground tunnels and exploded out of the other holes in a fire wall….which was where Sneasel was standing.

"WHAT!?"

"Seriously dude? Did you think I was just having him practice his digging" Corrine taunted.

"GET UP AND USE POISON JAB" Corrine was surprised to see that Sneasel very slowly but surely got to his feet albeit very injured and definitely not as fast when he ran forward at about half its normal speed.

"Wait" Corrine ordered knowing that Cyndaquil was breathing heavy and heavily damaged from the barrage of shadow balls earlier. "Toxic!" Cyndaquil wasn't fast enough to dodge so he got hit with the poison jab but he was able to spit a glob of toxic sludge and land a hit on Sneasel.

"Snea!"

"Cynda!" both pokémon yelled out in pain shuttering as the poison worked its way through each of their bodies.

"SNEASEL USE-"

"Malcolm enough!" a women's voice yelled. It was the Sneasel girl from the forest "We need to retreat. Now." Her tone left no room for discussion.

"Gah fine!" Malcolm growled angrily returning his pokémon "This isn't over runt!" he threatened before running off after his partner. Corrine made no move to go after them instead scooping Cyndaquil in up in her arms.

"Here bud, eat this" she put a Pecha berry up to his mouth which he weakly began to eat.

"Quil!" he cried happily as the berry cancelled out the effects of the poison.

"Eat this to" she then put an Oran berry up to his mouth which he devoured happily.

"Cynda cynda!" he made a show of flexing his arms to show that his strength had returned.

"Great! Now let's see about helping Eric and the others get everyone out of those cages"

"Quil" Cyndaquil agreed as they ran towards where Eric was kicking the butts of all the other grunts and their Poochyena and Houndour.

**XxXUnnecessary-Scene-TransitionXxX**

Chase spared a glance at Corrine as she led her opponent away from him and Ezra which he deemed a smart move on her part. There was no trusting these crooks and their dirty tricks.

"Come now, must this really end in a tussle?" Ezra questioned. Chase did nothing but stare at him evenly which cause Ezra to sigh "Very well…Bisharp use metal sound" Bisharp rubbed his arms together and silver colored sound waves spread out hitting Electivire.

"Vire!" Electivire yelled in pain covering his ears.

"Electivire stop it with thunderbolt!" Electivire released powerful bolts of lightning from the two horns on its head towards Bisharp.

"Dodge" Bisharp stopped its attack and dodged the thunderbolt with a graceful backflip "Now metal claw" Bisharp's two white claws at the end of its arms turn into silver metal and he rushed towards Electivire.

"Meet him with double thunder punch" Electivire ran at Bisharp with both his fists cloaked in electricity. Both pokémon met in a fury off fists, taking hit after hit and returning their own just as hard. Neither was giving an inch so Ezra decided it was time to take a different approach.

"Jump back then iron head" Bisharp quickly lowered its head and the blade sticking out of the top of its head turns into iron before launching itself at Electivire so fast that he didn't have time to dodge.

"Brick break!" Electivire's forearm becomes surrounded in white sparks and he hit Bisharp in the side sending him flying backwards. Despite the attack being super effective Bisharp still landed on his feet.

"This is becoming a bore. Finish this with guillotine" Ezra yawned. The blades on Bisharp's elbows began to glow a light blue and it once again launched itself at Electivire.

"Catch it" Chase ordered calmly. Once Bisharp in reach Electivire's tails shot out and wrapped themselves around its middle "Double fire punch" Electivire's fists became encased in fire as he punched Bisharp once, twice, three times.

"Sharp!" he cried in pain at the supper effective attacks.

"Stone edge to get him away" Bisharp's body became surrounded in white energy then formed into multiple gray rocks which it shot at Electivire point blank.

"Vire!" he grunted in pain releasing his grip on Bisharp who then back flipped and landed in front of his trainer. Before the battle could continue however a female grunt came running up to Ezra.

"Sir there is a problem. The pokémon and the gym leader have been freed" she gasped, Ezra looked behind him to see that Noibat was breaking through the last of the metal cages with steel wing and Froakie had just finished untying the last of the workers. Eric had defeated pretty much all the grunts and Corrine was making sure all the pokémon weren't hurt.

"Oh bother" Ezra sighed "Is the stone secure?"

"Yes sir!"

"Very well retreat"

"Sir" the grunt ran off to fulfil her orders.

"I don't think so" Chase snapped "We aren't finished here"

"But I do believe we are" Ezra responded with a smirk "Thank you for the thrilling battle though and I am sure we will meet again. Bisharp sand storm" Bisharp's forearms began to glow white then it swung its arms causing a giant twister of sand to spread out over the whole area.

"Wait!" Chase called coughing as Electivire shielded him from the attack. All that could be heard was people shouting and the whir of helicopter blades.

"Whirlwind!" a voice that Chase recognized as Corrine's ordered and in seconds the sand was blown away freeing Chase and Electivire. "You alright?" she questioned walking over to him with Cyndaquil on her shoulder and Noibat on her head.

"Yeah" Chase responded coughing the last bit of sand out of his lungs "They got away though" Froakie then jumped on his trainer's shoulder.

"They all did" she stated off handedly "Here Electivire" she handed the thunderbolt pokémon an Oran berry which he gratefully accepted.

"Vire" he thanked feeling his strength return.

"Are you all alright?" a voice cut in. The duo turned to see that it was the women in the explorer who Ezra stated was the gym leader was addressing them.

"Yeah, we are good" Eric answered with Poliwag, Eevee and Mienfoo by his side.

"Thank you all so much for your help. My name is Gemma and I am the gym leader of Stonemeadow" Gemma introduced taking off her hat and running her hand through her short brown hair.

"It wasn't a problem at all" Corrine responded politely "What were they after?"

"They took off with one of the black stones and they would've taken our pokémon if it hadn't been for you three and the cavalry showing up when you did" Gemma's hazel eyes sparkled with her thanks.

"What would they need the stone for?" Eric wondered.

"Who knows" Gemma answered "But I do know that you three need to be rewarded" she pulled a pouch from her belt and opened it "Here take on of these. We found them in a newly discovered chamber of the mine that is full of them" in the pouch were several evolutionary stones in it.

"Oh this is too much. We couldn't possibly accept these" Chase stated slightly pushing the pouch back towards Gemma, Eric and Corrine nodded in agreement.

"Well that's too bad because you are getting one. Now are you going to pick or am I going to have to pick one for you" Gemma said clearly not taking no for an answer.

"Really a gym battle is really all-"

"Pick one!" she glared at the three shoving the pouch at them. The three instantly reached their hand in the pouch rather scared of the young gym leader. Eric pulled out a water stone while Chase and Corrine both pulled out fire stones. "Good. Now about that gym battle who is the challenger?" Gemma asked happily, Corrine pointed to herself and Chase not really sure she should say anything. "Awesome well head to the pokémon center and get your pokémon healed than stop by the gym and I shall be waiting for you" with that she turned heel and left three very stunned trainers in her wake.

"Well this will definitely be interesting…" Corrine muttered, Eric and Chase nodded in agreement.

* * *

**Coming Up Next:** Corrine finally gets to have her first gym battle...to bad she is at a type disadvantage with both of her pokémon. What will she come up with to finally pull out a win? Chase also gets to face the gym leader so we shall see how the two trainers deal with finally being real rivals.


	7. Gym Challenges and Challenging Battles!

**Hello my lovely angel faces! Are you ready for another exciting chapter? I know I am! Without further blathering on my part here is chapter 6!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Following Gemma's instructions the trio went to the pokémon center and got all their pokémon healed.

"Well that was certainly nice of her to give us evolution stones" Eric stated looking down at the blue water stone in his hands.

"More like force them on us" Corrine chuckled "But yeah it was super nice. Hey Eric I didn't know you had an Eevee"

"Yeah my sister just recently sent her to me from Kanto" Eric replied.

"What do you plan on evolving her into?" Chase questioned. "I'm not really sure maybe a Flareon or an Umbreon or even an Espeon. I haven't really decided yet..." Eric rambled.

"Well here" Chase tossed Eric the fire stone he got from Gemma "Just so you're prepared if you choose Flareon"

"Oh no there is no way I could take this!" Eric spouted trying to give Chase back the fire stone but Chase just shook his head.

"I don't see myself catching anything that needs a fire stone to evolve so you might as well put it to use" he explained.

"Well...thanks" Eric was still unsure but put both the stones in his bag.

"Aw look at Mr. Nice guy being all sweet and stuff" Corrine gushed sarcastically pinching his cheek.

"Alright knock it off" he swatted her hand away.

"Thank you for waiting. Your pokémon are all in tip top form" Nurse Joy stated bringing over the tray with all the pokémon.

"Thank you very much Nurse Joy!" they all thanked retrieving their pokémon along with Froakie and Noibat.

"My pleasure, please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you" and with that she walked back to the counter.

"Well what do you say we head to the gym" Chase suggested. "Yeah! Let's go get our first gym badg-aahhh!" Corrine was interrupted when someone crashed into her and snatched Noibat off her shoulder.

"OH MY GOD YOU ARE SO CUTE! LOOK AT YOUR EARS. YOUR WINGS LOOK SO STRONG! YOUR FUR IS SO SOFT AND PURPLE!" a girl with long caramel colored hair yelled poking and prodding at Noibat.

"Noi…." he grunted uncomfortably trying to get out of the girls hand and back to his trainer.

"Hey what's the big idea?!" Corrine snapped heaving herself off the ground glaring at the new addition of a tall girl with caramel colored hair who was firmly grasping her starter in a tight hug.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to knock you over but I just love flying types like this little cutie here!" the girl exclaimed bouncing up and down with her blue eyes sparkling in excitement…which didn't last very long. "Ah!" Noibat had quite enough of the over excited so he took matters into his own wings and shot a shadow ball directly into her face.

"Bat!" he hissed from his trainer's shoulder once he escaped.

"Oh gosh! Noibat! I am so sorry he isn't normally like this" Corrine incessantly apologized as she scurried to help the fallen girl to her feet.

"Oh no problem" the girl immediately jumped up from the ground making Corrine jump "My fault completely. Sorry I tend to get really excited when I see flying types. Right Fletchinder?" she addressed the red and yellow bird pokémon that had landed on her shoulder once all the commotion had settled down.

"Fletchinder?" Corrine pulled out her pokédex and scanned the pokémon _'Fletchinder, the Ember Pokémon. From its beak, it expels embers that set the tall grass on fire. Then it pounces on the bewildered prey that pops out of the grass. The hotter the flame sac on its belly, the faster it can fly, but it takes some time to get the fire going.'_

"You mentioned you went crazy because of Noibat being a flying type?" Chase prompted studying the new arrival.

"That's right! You my friends are looking at the one and only flying photographer Alana!" she cheered holding up the camera that was hanging around her neck.

"Never heard of you…" Eric confessed causing Alana to drop her head for a minute before it snapped up again with vigor.

"Well look at this!" she stated whipping out a magazine from her bag and throwing it in threesomes face "I travel around the regions photographing flying type pokémon and generally any pokémon with the ability to fly in their natural habitats as well as in battles."

"These pictures are amazing" Corrine said flipping through picture after picture. One was of a flock of Spearow and Pidgey led by a Fearow and a Pidgeot fighting over territory, the next were same Dodrio running through a field, a Beautifly sucking sap and from a flower, and last was a Xatu in battle with a Mightyena.

"Where did you take all these pictures?" Eric asked looking at the pictures over Corrine's shoulder.

"Well actually…none of those pictures are mine…" Alana chuckled nervously rubbing her neck.

"Come again?" Chase asked.

"You see my goal is to become part of this magazine. I'm really a novice and they won't let me in until I have enough experience and good enough photos…"she explained "These are my photos" she handed a few photos to the group. Looking through them there was a Gyrados jumping out of the water, a Skarmory floating in the clouds, an Emolga fighting a Hawlucha, as we all some of Fletchinder.

"These are really good. You definitely have talent" Chase assured her.

"Thanks so much!" Alana gushed.

"This is great and all but we were kind of heading to the gym so if you don't mind…" Corrine said stepping around Alana to head for the exit.

"Are you going to be battling with Noibat?" Alana asked.

"Uh…yeah…"

"OH PLEASE CAN I COME WITH YOU TO WATCH! I COULD TAKE AMAZING PICTURES AND I WILL EVEN FILM THE BATTLE FOR YOU AS A KEEP SAKE. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE" Alana begged loudly gripping Corrine by her shoulders and shaking her.

"Yeah…sure…whatever just let me go!" Corrine stuttered starting to feel sick from all the shaking.

"YAY!" and with that Corrine once again landed on the floor because of Alana's excitement.

**XxXUnnecessary-Scene-TransitionXxX **

Within minutes the foursome were standing in the doorway of the gym...looking at an empty battlefield. They entered the gym and made their way to the center of it feeling very confused.

"I don't get it...she did say she would be waiting for us right?" Corrine wondered as the continued walking to the middle of the battlefield.

"That's what she said" Chase responded looking around.

"Well then where the he-AHH!" Corrine was interrupted when she stepped in the very center of the field and the ground gave way beneath her making her plummet to whatever lay below. Her friends not far behind her as they were victims of the crumbling floor. Before they could really register what happened they were all in a pile on some soft dirt at the very end of fall.

"Ugh, Corrine what did you do this time?" Chase groaned.

"Get your elbow out my side" Eric snapped shoving Chase off of him.

"My aching everything" Alana complained not moving from her spot beneath Eric.

"This is all wonderful that we are all really close and such but could you all get off me!" Corrine voiced from the bottom of the pile. "And for your information Chase I didn't do anything!" she glared at him.

"Well then how do you explain us falling into a forty foot hole? You had to of done something" he glared right back. "If I knew stepping onto a gym battlefield was going to set off a booby trap I would've gladly let you go first!"

"Yeah but if I went first the booby trap wouldn't have gone off! These things only happen to you!"

"Why you-"

"Guys where is Fletchinder and the others?" Alana voiced interrupting the argument.

"Fletch" Fletchinder called from above them. She and Noibat were casually gliding down to the bottom of the hole with Froakie holding onto their feet. Froakie let go and landed on Eric's head before using the others heads as stepping stones until he was back on Chase's shoulder.

"Glad you enjoyed your ride" Chase stated dryly.

"Fro!" his pokémon cheered happily.

"Now that we are all here how are we going to get out of this place?" Eric wondered.

"Maybe we can climb up" Alana suggested.

"No, that won't work. The hole is too far up" Chase observed looking upward "Our best bet is to go this way and see where this tunnel let's out" he took a step forward further into the tunnel. As soon as his foot hit the ground it sank ever so slightly and there was a click followed by a massive thud which caused everyone to freeze. Slowly they all turned to look behind them to see a massive round boulder had appeared behind them.

"What was that about you not setting off booby traps" Corrine smirked at Chase who just glared in response.

"Guys..." Alana said before another argument could spark "No time for that now" she slowly backed away towards the tunnel as the boulder started to roll towards them.

"RUN!" Eric yelled dashing passed everyone into the tunnel. The other three looked at each other before sprinting after him. They all bolted down the tunnel with the boulder gaining speed after them which they thought was their only problem until...

"AHH!" Corrine screamed slamming on the breaks and barely sliding to a stop as a pillar of rock shot out from the side of the tunnel. The pillar had barely avoided hitting her in the face "What the hell man! Why is it always me?!" she shouted glaring at the pillar.

"Keep running!" Chase snapped grabbing her wrist and yanking her along after them.

"Look out!" Eric ducked as another pillar shot out.

"Yikes!" Alana was down sliding on her knees under the pillar in front of her.

"What is this?" Eric yelled jumping over a particularly low beam.

"No clue but keep heading forward!" Chase ordered dodging his own pillar.

"Maybe these things will stop the boulder" Alana called but the rumble of the boulder crashing right through the beams answered her before any of the others could "Of course not" she muttered dryly avoiding another beam. They picked up speed and continued ducking and weaving around the suddenly appearing pillars while the boulder slowly gained speed on them.

"We can't keep this! We need to stop it!" Corrine grunted vaulting over a pillar.

"No duh! But how do you expect us to do that!?" Chase panted slightly in front of her.

"Noibat, dark pulse!"

"Noi!" Noibat maneuvered his way from her shoulder to the hood of her jacket before firing the black and purple energy beam from his mouth directly at the center. The boulder hesitated in its rolling as the powerful attack.

"Good idea! Fletchinder, use flamethrower!" Alana called.

"Fletch" she nodded and shot a powerful fire attack hitting the boulder left of where the dark pulse was hitting.

"We are going to need more power than that. Poliwag hydro pump!" Eric ordered throwing his pokéball.

"Wag!" the two legged water pokémon responded before firing the water attack which caused the boulder to slow even more. The four trainers were able to stop running as the combining pressure of the attacks and the obstacles created by the pillars were continuously slowing the boulder until it came to a slow stop.

"Hold it right there guys! Froakie use your frubbles to make it stick in place!" Chase encouraged.

"Kie!" Froakie launched the sticky bubbles from his neck around the outline of the boulder to make sure it didn't move. Once they were sure the boulder wasn't going to move the pokémon ceased their attacks.

"Good job guys" Corrine panted resting her hands on her knees to catch her breath.

"What in the world was that?" Alana questioned leaning against the tunnel wall.

"No clue but at least it's over now" Chase responded, on queue the boulder gave a groan.

"You had to say it didn't you?" Corrine stated giving Chase a dry look.

"Looks like it isn't over yet" Eric said not wasting any time scooping up Poliwag and sprinting down the tunnel once again. The other three had decided it was a good idea and ran after them as the boulder gave another creak, breaking free of the frubbles and rolling once again. Once the boulder started up again so did the pillars. Being that they were much closer to the boulder this time it was harder for them to get away.

"Look! There's an exit!" Alana cheered. "Then let's pick up the pace!" Corrine called as the bolder was almost directly upon them. Using every last bit of their strength the pushed their legs as fast as they could go. Throwing themselves out of the exit the force of the boulder running into the exit had them skittering along the ground.

"Bravo! Very well done!" A voice said followed along by some clapping. All four heads snapped up and they found themselves in a large cavern looking at none other than Gemma.

"What do you mean by bravo?" Eric quizzed pulling himself off the ground.

"You passed my gym test silly" Gemma responded with a big smile on her face.

"You mean to tell me that crazy death trap is your idea of a gym test! We could've died! How is a gym leader able to get away with maiming her challengers?!" Corrine ranted angrily.

"Relax" Chase stated holding her back from going to strangle said gym leader "What exactly is a gym challenge?"

"A gym challenge is the task that a gym leader presents to their challengers before an official gym battle can be held. They are used to see how trainers face adversity and how they work with their pokémon in a time of crisis. If they are unable to complete the task then their challenge is not accepted" Gemma explained.

"Are the challenges supposed to be so dangerous though?" Alana asked still a bit out of breath.

"Oh you were never in any real danger. The whole thing was pokémon controlled and they were on standby if anything turned sour. See" she pointed over to where a Rhypherior was pushing the boulder back up the tunnel they came from.

"So you use that to essentially test the trust a trainer has with their pokémon as well as the trainer's ability to think on their feet?" Eric questioned making sure he understood.

"That's right. Much like you four did with your pokémon. And I have to say not many trainers are able to accomplish what you did on the first try"

"So they have to keep doing that until they do it correctly?" Alana quizzed.

"Correct"

"And if they don't get it right?"

"The gym pokémon step in and stop the challenge. Then the trainer is returned to the surface and told to come back when they get the idea."

"Brutal..." Chase murmured.

"So, which one of you will be my challenger?" Gemma asked throwing her arms up in excitement looking back and forth between Corrine and Chase eager to battle one of the few challengers that actually got through her little death trap without needing to be saved.

"I will" Corrine stated stepping forward just a bit apprehensive about what this gym leader was like, if her 'entrance game' was anything to go by then Corrine was a little worried.

"Amazing! Ok here we come! Gliscor shake the ground!" Gemma shouted throwing her pokéball high in the air and out came a big bat like pokémon that landed on its tail.

"Gliscor huh?" Corrine muttered before taking out her pokédex _'Gliscor, the Fang Scorp Pokémon, and the evolved form of Gligar. It watches its prey as it hangs from trees by its tail and attacks from above when it sees the chance.' _

"Ok take em' out Cyndaquil" out popped the Johto starter 'I know we are at a disadvantage but we will just have to beat them with speed.' Once both pokémon were out the referee stepped up on his platform.

"All right this is a two one two battle between Gym Leader Gemma and Corrine of Pax Valley. Neither trainer is allowed to switch pokémon until their first pokémon has fainted. Ready? Begin!"

"You can go ahead and have the first move!" Gemma cheered.

"Cyndaquil use smokescreen" Corrine called.

"Quil!" opened his mouth and released a thick cloud of smoke that soon blanketed the whole arena.

"Trying to stay out of sight huh? Well that isn't going to work. Gliscor use sandstorm to blow it away" Gliscor flapped its wings and released a sandstorm in the middle of smokescreen completely blowing it away.

_'Well that didn't work'_ Corrine thought to herself "Cyndaquil use flamethrower" Cyndaquil released a stream of fire at Gliscor.

"Up!" Gemma called.

"Scor!" Gliscor simply opened its wings a bit a glided out of range of the fire attack.

_'What am I going to do? Fire attacks won't do much damage...we need to Gliscor down here but how?'_ Corrine went over different ideas in her head but none of them were going to work.

"Hesitation will get you in a battle so if you aren't going to attack then I will! Gliscor stone edge" Gemma ordered taking advantage of Corrine being distracted.

"Gli" Gliscor's eyes glowed white and two light blue rings appeared around its body that then turned into white stones that it fired at Cyndaquil.

"Double team" Corrine managed to call out. Cyndaquil instantly made a bunch of copies of himself all over the battlefield, the stones plowed through all the copies making them disappear while the real Cyndaquil managed to avoid most of the attack.

"Quil" he grunted as he was grazed by some of the stones.

"Get up close with quick attack" Cyndaquil shot forward with extreme speed rushing towards his opponent.

"Earthquake!" Gliscor dropped from the sky and slammed his tail on the ground causing shockwaves to pulse through the ground. The energy was so strong that it knocked Cyndaquil off his feet and caused him to sort of pinball across the field bouncing off boulder after boulder severely damaging him. "No wrap this up with guillotine!"

"Cyndaquil get away!" Corrine gave a panicked call, she knew if that attack hit then this match was over.

"I don't think so. Grab it!" Gliscor lashed out with his tail and trapped Cyndaquil against a boulder. Then one of his claws began to glow light blue, he threw Cyndaquil into the air with his tail before grabbing him by the neck and slamming him into the ground.

"CYNDAQUIL!" Corrine yelled desperately but it was to late, Cyndaquil was on the ground unconscious.

"Cyndaquil is unable to battle! The winner of the match is Gliscor. Will the challenger please send out your next pokémon" the ref called raising the flag on Gemma's side of the field. Corrine slowly pulled out Cyndaquil's pokéball and returned her fallen fire type. She stood their motionless for a few seconds completely in shock about such a quick defeat.

"Corrine focus! Don't get so far in your head!" Chase called from the sidelines.

"Come on Corrine you and Noibat can do it!" Alana cheered from her place next to Chase. The call of her friends pulled her out of her self induced haze and she turned to her partner with her determined expression back on her face.

"We can turn this around! Noibat take 'em out!" she called pointing towards the battlefield.

"NOI!" Noibat growled fiercely as he swooped down toward the field.

"SCOR!" his opponent responded just as fiercely.

'Ok so the battle is on more even footing since they are both up in the air. Noibat isn't affected by earthquake and has a better chance of dodging the stone edge combined with the fact that he has more long distance attacks to keep them away with guillotine we should be able to turn this around' Corrine calculated looking at both her pokémon and her opponents pokémon.

"Glad to still see that fire. Once again you may have the first move" Gemma stated crossing her arms over her chest.

"Noibat use dark pulse!" Corrine ordered. Noibat let loose the stream of dark black and purple energy at Gliscor.

"Counter with stone edge" Gliscor shot off multiple pointed stones at Noibat.

"Dodge them but keep firing"

"Bat" Noibat swooped left and right to avoid the stones while firing the dark pulse "Noi!" he cried in pain when the stones finally made contact.

"Scor!" Gliscor cried out as well as he was hit with the dark pulse.

"Gliscor!" Gemma called in surprise "Well done but that was only luck. Gliscor sludge bomb!" Gliscor opened his claw and shot multiple globs of brown sludge.

"Fight back with shadow ball!" Noibat hit the sludge with the balls of black and purple energy. The attacks cancelled each other resulting in smoke covering the battlefield as well as the pokémon.

_'These far off attacks aren't doing anything...we don't have a choice but to get in with a close attack'_ Corrine thought with gritted teeth "But if we can get behind them then they won't have a chance to hit us with guillotine...looks like that is what we are going to have to do. Noibat close your eyes and use your ears to find Gliscor then hit him with aerial ace" Noibat shot forward into the smoke and used his ears to direct him to where Gliscor was floating.

"Smack it down with poison jab" Gemma called. Gliscor's claw began to glow purple in preparation for Noibat's attack.

"Switch then continue!" Corrine stated. Noibat continued forward heading straight for Gliscor who brought his poison covered claw directly down on Noibat's head...except it went directly through Noibat or rather the Noibat double causing it to disappear. The real Noibat had managed to get behind Gliscor and was about to slam right between his wings when Gliscor's tail lashed out and grabbed Noibat in a crushing grip.

"Nice technique but I have trained my Gliscor to be ready for attacks from behind. As fun as this has been it is really time we end it so your friend can have a chance to battle me as well. Gliscor finish with ice fang!" Corrine's eyes widened in panic as Gliscor's fangs began to glow a light blue.

"Noibat use brick break on his tail then get out of there!" Corrine all but screamed. Noibat's paw glowed white as he smacked down on the part of Gliscor's tail that was holding him captive managing to break free and fly away.

"After it" Gemma ordered calmly. Gliscor instantly went after Noibat, the battle had turned into an aerial game of tag with Gliscor keeping pace with Noibat's every move. With every dip, twist, and dive Gliscor was right on Noibat's tail and was gaining speed. Suddenly an updraft caught Noibat by surprise causing him to get knocked backwards directly into Gliscor. Gliscor's mouth enclosed around Noibat's wing.

"BAT!" Noibat screamed in intense pain thrashing about to get out of his icy prison. Ice began to seep from Gliscor's jaws and around the dragon/flying type freezing him in a block of ice. When he was completely frozen Gliscor flicked his head and sent the ice cube crashing into the gym floor in a puff of smoke.

"I have to commend you for coming in here to challenge me when all your pokémon had type disadvantages. But this match is over and unfortunately I don't except rematches until 48 hours after the battle has been lost. I recommend using that time for battle strategies and special training." Gemma stated from across the field.

"Noibat is unable to battle! The winner of the gym battle is the gym leader Gemma" the ref called once the smoke had cleared and it was clear there was no more fight left in Noibat. However Corrine didn't hear anything anybody was saying, all she could do was stare at her starter laying unconscious in a pile of broken rock and ice shards...her eyes completely dead...

* * *

**Coming up next:** Corrine has to deal with yet another devastating loss. How will she train for her rematch? Will she win this time? After witnessing his friends loss it is Chase's turn to challenge the gym leader and dealing with the fact that she uses different pokémon he won't know what to expect.


End file.
